【推荐1】My friend’s son, Tom, was unhappy and ______ last year. He couldn’t get on well with his friends. He thought they usually hurt him. He didn’t change himself ______ his grandpa told him a story.

The story was about two friends, Mario and Jimmy, who were walking in the desert(沙漠). During the walk, they had a ______ and Mario hit Jimmy in the face. Jimmy was hurt, but he didn’t say anything. ______ he wrote in the sand, “Today my best friend hit me in the face.” They ______ walking. When they saw green fields and a beautiful river, they decided to ______. Jimmy fell into the river and started shouting for help, but Mario saved him. After Jimmy was out of ______, he wrote on a stone, “Today my best friend saved my life.” Mario was in ______ and asked Jimmy, “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now you write on a stone. Why?” Jimmy replied, “When someone hurts us, we should write it down in the sand where ______ can blow it away. But when someone does good things for us, we must carve(雕刻) them in the stone where no winds can blow it away.”

After ______ this, Tom was shocked and kept silent. From then on, he changed a lot and became happy.

When I was in Grade 5, I had a fight with a boy ________ Tony. I have forgotten what the fight was about but I have never forgotten the lesson learned that day.

I thought I was right and he was wrong, and Tony just thought that I was wrong and he was right. The teacher Mrs. Green, decided to teach us a very important ________.

Mrs.Green asked us to stand on each side of her desk. In the middle of her desk was a large, round object. I could ________ see that it was black. She asked Tony what ________ the object was. “White,” Tony answered. I couldn’t ________ Tony said the object was white, when it was black! Another fight started ________ us, this time about the color of the object.

The teacher told me to go and stand where Tony was standing and told him to come and stand where I had been. ________ changed places, and now she asked me what the color of the object was. I had to answer, “________.” It was an object with two differently colored ________. From Tony’s side it was white, ________ from my side it was black.

A group of adults, highly succeeded in their jobs, went to visit their professor. Soon they began to complain about the stress and problems in work and life.

The professor went to the kitchen and returned ________ a pot of coffee and all kinds of cups—crystal, glass, plastic; some nice looking, some plain looking. And the students noticed that some were expensive, some were cheap. And he told them to help ________ to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said, “I’ve noticed that all the nice looking expensive cups were ________ up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. Although ________ is normal for you to take only the best for yourselves, that is the root of your problems and stress. You know that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. And ________ you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, ________ you all went for the best cups.”

Now think about this: Life is the coffee, the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cup does not change the quality of our life. Sometimes, by paying ________ only to the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee that God has ________ us. God gave us the coffee, not the cups. Please enjoy your coffee!

The ________ people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Live simply. Love sincerely. Care deeply. Speak ________. And leave the rest to God.